A Rational View of Nuclear Power

Physicist Richard Muller discusses the panic over the Fukushima accident and the need to put nuclear risks in perspective with WSJ Weekend Review editor Gary Rosen.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... it's been a year since the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan and the nuclear industry is still in retreat around the world ... did we over react to the meltdowns at Fukushima did we and ... our guests today certainly thinks so we're joined by a rich Muller a rich is a physicist at the University of California Berkeley and the author of The a terrific new book called energy for future presidents now average part of this book ... is in no way ... a ... defense of the nuclear industry and in particular ... in ... response to what happened in Fukushima now we all saw the coverage of this awful event ... are we not right to be very concerned about the lasting impact of that radioactive ... and dispersal there ... I fear that we are overreacting ... people tend to respond to ... create disasters and ... then they call them the context of the result is that aren't all the ... based on what we thought ... was going to happen or how bad something can be ... a back to the accident Fukushima is much less ... of a people ... thank you to be much less in terms of ... in terms of expected was lost ... then will people still think it's going to be ... so you talk about some of the figures involved here and in in the piece you have in this weekend's Wall Street Journal weekend Revue ... you and you talk about estimates now by your reckoning ... we're going to be seeing not so very many ... additional ... cancer deaths I'm additional illnesses from from Fukushima ... that's right a lot of reckoning is not that different from any other experts to talking and talking about ... objective experts to just try to work the numbers ... we don't treat your to do was to see in this area ... and ... it's the ... it was bad ... and as result we ... calculate that there will be in excess of cancers ... aam but the number is tiny know ... best estimate is that it will be few than a hundred ... tiny compared to the other damage done by that awful ... nominee which killed we estimate over thirty thousand people ... now know what the very surprising things in your piece is something you call that Denver doubts ... the Denver dose of ... radiation ... and you compare it to Fukishima so what you're talking about I guess is sort of ... the natural background radiation in the city of Denver to tell us why that's significant ... while known for years most scientists know that dinner is more reluctant than the rest of the United States ... that's because the glue that comes from a file to the mostly comes from the new bar graph which in its radon gas ... so this is well though ... and ... if we're ... measuring the danger of excess radioactivity repeated a standard ... it's this review activity to be accepted until the lots so for example it and or something like three hundred Rand when the unit up ... of radiation damage the body ... that's the extent that you ... are living in Denver vs somewhere else ... now when the level at Fukushima drops below three hundred gram usually activity ... and ... it's more dangerous than living in Denver at that point ... we properly or the level and anger ... some people can ... calculate numbers and come up with the numbers long exposures to very low levels of brain activity ... was going to be so minuscule that in that in the servile experimental he cannot see small increases in cancer like this ... at that point as the one that will lead in the house ... we really should policies we are ... so so so rich that the upshot of your piece is that is that we have handed in response to Fukishima ... and your concern is ... that this will on in a certain way of bringing and to the development of new nuclear reactors around the world ... and why why is that a bad thing why should we want to promote this this seemingly dangerous relatively dangerous form of energy ... it is it's not really the dangers ... of the dangers that we get from Kohler core from the outside global warming so that chokes the people of China ... either they are ... the technologies are expensive ... I think nuclear ... we should consider based on its ... realistic thing it's not on the theory that spring ... up from an overreaction to an accident in Fukushima that was actually tiny compared to much greater damage done by the tsunami ... let's just keep it in perspective ... in response to a proportionate way ... one very good at things for joining us ... Richard Muller ... had the name of the book again is energy for future presidents and is excerpted in this weekend's Wall Street Journal weekend Revue I'm Gary Rosen the law Street Journal ...